


Developments

by vix_spes



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Getting Together, HP: EWE, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 19:16:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6296656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vix_spes/pseuds/vix_spes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco had made it onto a professional Quidditch team; he hadn't been expecting anything more than that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Developments

“And this is the locker room. I don’t know if anyone will be … ha, we’re in luck. Here’s our other new signing. Maybe you were at Hogwarts together? Malfoy, this is our new keeper …”  
  
“Weasley.”  
  
The last face that Draco Malfoy had expected to see in the locker room was that of Ron Weasley. Immediately, his heart sank. Draco had been convinced that this was finally, finally, going to be his fresh start, the opportunity that he had been waiting for. He had been a bit worried when he had been told that Oliver Wood, former Gryffindor Quidditch captain had taken over as head coach for the Falmouth Falcons but the man had been, if not pleasant, then courteous enough at Draco’s try-out. Weasley was a completely different matter though.  
  
“Fantastic! You know each other then?”  
  
“We do.”  
  
“Something like that.”  
  
Proving completely oblivious to the tension in the air - where had the man been for the last ten years or so? - Mr Gardiner smiled jovially at the two of them. “Well, in that case, I’ll leave you to it. I’m sure that the two of you have plenty to catch up on. Good to have you both on board. Hopefully some new blood will get us back up the league. I’ll see you in training tomorrow.”  
  
The door swung shut behind the manager, leaving the two of them standing in awkward silence. Draco’s mind was racing. What was Weasley doing here in Falmouth? What was he doing playing professional Quidditch for that matter? He was supposed to be in London at the Ministry with Potter, the darling of the Auror Squad. What else would you expect two-thirds of the Gryffindor Golden Trio to be doing?  
  
“So, you’re the new Seeker then?”  
  
Draco was shocked out of his thoughts as Weasley spoke but as he looked up, he saw that the other man wasn’t even paying attention to him. Instead, Weasley had his naked back turned to Draco as he changed shirts but, before Draco could speak, Weasley had carried on.  
  
“Draco Malfoy, the same as the rest of us for once. How does it feel to have a job without Daddy’s help for the first time ever?”  
  
Draco was aware that his mouth was opening and closing rather unattractively (and rather stupidly) but he was utterly taken aback by Weasley’s words. “Umm..”  
  
“Don’t get me wrong. I still don’t like you Malfoy. However, I know Wood and how he treats Quidditch; if he didn’t think you were the best person for the job then you wouldn’t be here.”  
  
Never mind Weasley being the last person that he had expected to see, those were certainly the last words that Draco had ever thought to hear emerge from Weasley’s mouth. Somehow, Weasley had managed to cut straight to the heart of things.  
  
Draco didn’t have to work in order to earn a living. Even after everything that his family had done, he was still independently wealthy and could afford to never do a day’s work in his life. Needless to say, having done it once already, following in his father’s footsteps was not something that Draco wanted to do when it came to his career. Despite enjoying potions, he didn’t want to brew them for the rest of his life and a career in the Ministry was hardly an appealing, or a viable, option.  
  
That had left him with one option; Quidditch. Lucius may have bought him onto the Slytherin Quidditch team all those years ago but Draco was genuinely good at Quidditch and he had worked hard to get where he was. Even so, despite his talent and his willingness to work, he had been turned down by numerous professional teams before he had ultimately managed to get onto the Caerphilly Catapults Reserve team. It had been from there that he had made the move to the Falcons and, finally, someone had acknowledged that Draco had got this position because he was good enough.  
  
He just hadn’t expected it to be Weasley. That being said, Hogwarts had been a long time ago. Maybe things had changed. Maybe Weasley had grown up.  
  
“See you in training, Ferret.”  
  
Then again, maybe not.  
  


  
~*~

  
  
  
By the time that Draco had been with the Falcons for several months, he had finally started to feel as though he was finding his feet, as though he had found a place amongst the team. The first few weeks had been tough. While the other members of the team hadn’t been openly hostile, neither had they welcomed him with open arms and there were one or two that definitely made no attempts to hide the fact that they were skirting around him in the locker room. There had been a few whispers of Death Eater but none of them had come from the person that Draco had expected them to come from, and he had simply done his utmost to hold his head high, ignore them and concentrate on his Quidditch playing.  
  
What Draco had found was that he was thrown into the company of a certain Keeper more and more. As the two new hires amongst an established team and also the two most independent positions on the team, the two of them were often lumped together for the drills whether they liked it or not. Oliver Wood couldn’t give a damn about old school rivalries, or even family feuds that had lasted for generations. As far as he was concerned, they didn’t have anything to do with Quidditch and so they had no place on the pitch; if Draco and Weasley couldn’t work together then they were both off the team. As neither of them had any intention of getting kicked off the team, they had managed to establish something of a grudging working relationship fairly early in their tenure.  
  
It was nothing more than a working relationship though. They were both polite towards each other (which was practically a miracle when you took not only their history, but that between their families, into consideration) and worked well together but they could hardly be described as friends. Everything that Draco knew about Weasley was as a result of hearing him talking with other members of the team or with Wood in the locker room or on team nights out. It had been through this eavesdropping that Draco had found out that Weasley had indeed followed Potter into the Aurors but he hadn’t stayed long before leaving and working in the business owned by his brother, eventually starting his own career in Quidditch.  
  
Draco couldn’t help but be somewhat impressed – as well as seeing some slight parallels between the two of them – that Weasley had refused to take the easy options of either working for his brother’s business or riding on Potter’s coattails. There was no denying that Weasley was actually a good Keeper and was rapidly improving as a result of Wood’s attention. There were already excited rumours running through the team that they might not end up at the bottom of the league this year, something that had been attributed not only to their new coach, but also to the presence of both their new Seeker and Keeper.  
  
Draco had tried not to preen too much when he heard that but he knew that he hadn’t been entirely successful when the teasing had started. At least he wasn’t alone in being picked on, if the flame-coloured cheeks of Weasley were anything to go by.  
  


  
~*~

  
  
  
Once they had reached the last few matches of the season, Weasley had become Ron and the working relationship had turned into a slightly odd friendship that seemed to be primarily based around alternately insulting and flirting with each other, much to the amusement of the rest of the team. His father would be horrified if he ever found out but, despite the number of suitable women that his parents had paraded in front of him, the inexorable truth happened to be that Draco was attracted to a Weasley. And a male one at that.  
  
Draco wasn’t exactly sure when he had started to find ginger hair and freckles appealing rather than something to poke fun at, but it had happened. Draco’s eyes had wandered over the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team whilst at Hogwarts, but there was a considerable difference between the boys of Hogwarts and the men of the Falcons. That said, Draco didn’t find his eyes lingering on the other men of the team nearly so much as they lingered on the pale, freckled skin of Ron Weasley’s broad shoulders.  
  
After the Falcons, thanks to Draco’s sharp eyes, had snatched victory from the Appleby Arrows and thus guaranteed finishing in the top two of the League, Draco found out that it was necessary to cling to those broad shoulders as Ron Weasley proceeded to blow Draco’s mind with one kiss.  
  
Really, it was embarrassing how Weasley of all people had managed to reduce Draco to a limp, whimpering mess clinging to his shoulders. One minute the whole team had been showering post-match and the next, Draco had been crowded up against the wet tiles with Ron’s lips on his. He had no idea why this had happened now, but he wasn’t complaining. Why would he be? Draco’s head thudded back against the wall with a moan as Ron’s lips trailed down his throat.  
  
This definitely hadn’t been what he had expected when he had joined the Falcons, but Draco was starting to learn to simply go with the flow as things developed; you never knew what awaited you.

**Author's Note:**

> If you would prefer to comment on LJ, you can do so [here](http://vix-spes.livejournal.com/237385.html)


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